Birmingham Promise

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The Birmingham Promise Initiative is a program to provide business apprenticeships and college scholarships to Birmingham City Schools students. The initiative is operated as a public-private partnership in conjunction with United Way of Central Alabama.

The Birmingham Promise Initiative was developed by Rachel Harmon as Birmingham's Deputy Director of Talent Development, working in Birmingham Department of Innovation and Economic Opportunity, an office established by Birmingham mayor Randall Woodfin. It is modeled on largely similar programs in Kalamazoo, Michigan and Buffalo, New York which have shown long-term success in improving graduation rates, closing achievement gaps in public schools, and reducing juvenile crime. Harmon served as the program's first executive director until stepping down in 2021 to attend Yale Law School.

Funding

Such programs require large amounts of private investment from partnering businesses and charitable foundations in order to establish an endowment. The initial implementation of Birmingham's program coincided with a reduction in the city's direct annual disbursement to the Birmingham Board of Education, from $3 million to $1 million in the 2020 Birmingham budget. The final budget approved by the Birmingham City Council included an annual appropriation of $2 million for 5 years to the Birmingham Promise Initiative.

In June 2019 the Birmingham Promise Initiative was awarded a $150,000 grant from the Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship (PAYA) to support strategy development and implementation. A $35 million fund-raising campaign was kicked off in February 2020 with the announcement of pledges of $1 million each from the Alabama Power Foundation, the Altec/Styslinger Foundation and Regions Bank.

In January 2020 UAB announced that it would provide a one-to-one match for Birmingham Promise scholarships for freshmen admitted as full-time students immediately after high school. In 2021 an additional $5 million gift from Vulcan Value Partners was announced, alongside $1 million gifts from Protective Life, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama, and Alabama Power Company.

Results

In the program's "pilot" year, 2019, a total of 20 students were placed in paid summer internships.

In August 2019, Woodfin announced that the Birmingham Promise program would begin offering all graduates from city schools a "last dollar" scholarship to attend public in-state 2- and 4-year colleges to which they have been accepted for enrollment, beginning with the class of 2020. That program had previously been referred to as the "Fred Shuttlesworth Promise Scholarship." Birmingham Promise also partnered with businesses to offer 150 paid apprentices for juniors and seniors in Birmingham City Schools.

In the first full year of scholarship assistance, Birmingham Promise supported 293 students with direct financial assistance totaling nearly $1.5 million. An additional 103 students, many of whom earned full scholarships, made use of the program's success coaches and staff during the year.

References

External links

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